Death of the American Youth Soccer Player

The indirect conflict between Major League Soccer (MLS Mext) and the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) has appeared to intensify in recent weeks.

MLS NEXT announces strategic alliance with Girls Academy. Clubs in the Girls Academy that aren’t participating in MLS Next have been approached about joining the league, and vice versa. Specifically, ECNL clubs with GA have been asked to jump over to MLS Next.

MLS Next has also begun expanding into markets that weren’t particularly important to them a few years ago. This strategic move aims to either increase membership, solidify age group divisions in certain markets, or target ECNL clubs. However, MLS owners are frustrated with the tens of millions of dollars invested in the league to keep it afloat, resulting in minimal returns.

On the other hand, the Girls Academy has been financially struggling, desperately trying to gain ground on the ECNL but making little progress. In response, the ECNL is expanding its Regional League brand, which now boasts double the membership compared to the ECNL route and has swiftly absorbed all the top GA clubs.

Perhaps the 3FOUR3 guys were right all along. The ones in charge do not care.

US Soccer’s Youth Soccer Model: More Sanctioning Leagues = More Money

BOYS: - MLS X2 EA EA2 ECNL ECNLRL USYSNL E64 NPL NAL RAL AYSO USSSA
GIRLS: - ECNL ECNLRL GA DPL USYSNL E64 NPL NAL RAL AYSO USSSA
I'm sure I left some out.

Soccer is evolving, with athletes now able to play two years in junior college without affecting NCAA eligibility. NIL is poised to impact college soccer (due to football), if the overwhelming amount of international students on college rosters don’t do it first. Other countries are catching up to our MNT and WNT as they focus on developing their own homegrown talent. Our kids play EA FC, while others worldwide engage in pickup and street soccer. If nothing changes before the next World Cup, we’ll have missed a great chance to grow soccer in this country. Then again, by then this conversation will have changed many times again.

Just trying to spark conversation during the holiday break.
 
I find it humorous that MLS owners who wanted to pull out from DA and create their own league are now complaining about how frustrating and expensive it is to have their own league. And I don't see how expanding the league will make those problems go away for them. I also don't see see the MLS Next and GA partnership really moving the needle for either of them. I would warn GA to not expect much since at the end of the day MLS really only cares about boys and MLS Next.

I think the best way forward on the girls side is if GA/DPL accepted their fate and just combine with ECRL to form a somewhat cohesive unified girls club structure. Clubs that consistently perform well over a few seasons can get promoted to ECNL. Combining RL/GA/DPL clubs would form a true regional league where teams could play a variety of high level teams without traveling too much. Let the top RL/GA/DPL clubs that win their playoffs enter ECNL playoffs as wildcards.
 
I find it humorous that MLS owners who wanted to pull out from DA and create their own league are now complaining about how frustrating and expensive it is to have their own league. And I don't see how expanding the league will make those problems go away for them. I also don't see see the MLS Next and GA partnership really moving the needle for either of them. I would warn GA to not expect much since at the end of the day MLS really only cares about boys and MLS Next.

I think the best way forward on the girls side is if GA/DPL accepted their fate and just combine with ECRL to form a somewhat cohesive unified girls club structure. Clubs that consistently perform well over a few seasons can get promoted to ECNL. Combining RL/GA/DPL clubs would form a true regional league where teams could play a variety of high level teams without traveling too much. Let the top RL/GA/DPL clubs that win their playoffs enter ECNL playoffs as wildcards.
Don't see that happening. ECNL is a great youth league... But MLS are the pros. Without a doubt MLS Next is the most important league in youth soccer. All that has to happen is for MLS to do what ECNL have done. Make every club that has MLS Next put their girls teams in GA and not ECNL. They do that and ECNL is cooked.
 
Don't see that happening. ECNL is a great youth league... But MLS are the pros. Without a doubt MLS Next is the most important league in youth soccer. All that has to happen is for MLS to do what ECNL have done. Make every club that has MLS Next put their girls teams in GA and not ECNL. They do that and ECNL is cooked.

I dunno - MLSN not allowing High School soccer is a big factor in ECNL’s favor.
 
I find it humorous that MLS owners who wanted to pull out from DA and create their own league are now complaining about how frustrating and expensive it is to have their own league. And I don't see how expanding the league will make those problems go away for them. I also don't see see the MLS Next and GA partnership really moving the needle for either of them. I would warn GA to not expect much since at the end of the day MLS really only cares about boys and MLS Next.

I think the best way forward on the girls side is if GA/DPL accepted their fate and just combine with ECRL to form a somewhat cohesive unified girls club structure. Clubs that consistently perform well over a few seasons can get promoted to ECNL. Combining RL/GA/DPL clubs would form a true regional league where teams could play a variety of high level teams without traveling too much. Let the top RL/GA/DPL clubs that win their playoffs enter ECNL playoffs as wildcards.

I don't think it's that simple. There are absolutely some GA teams/clubs that would do very well in ECNL (mid table or higher). ECNL needs to drop their bottom teams/clubs and bring those good GA clubs into the fold. ECNL on the girl's side has the top teams, but the tables have little parity to them.

That all aside it seems pretty straight forward to me at the moment.

Girls - ECNL or top 3 in GA. For ECNL avoid bottom 3-4. If on a solid ECRL team, try to get onto one of the aforementioned teams.
Boys - MLS Next or top 3 ECNL. For MLS Next avoid bottom 1-2. Anything outside of that, it will be a grind due to the inherent nature of how hard it is for boys to make it to the collegiate level (future roster size limits and abundance of foreign players).

This is the plan for the more serious player aiming to play in college. It's all about exposure. Most showcases for most players are a waste of time and money as most of the scouts are going to watch the top teams play. Just go to any of the top matches and see how many scouts there are. It's right there for you to see. Generally speaking the top teams are matched with other top teams.

I do think the MLSN + GA partnership will play out well. MLSN clubs have better coaching and generally have a better sense of style of play and a cohesive methodology. If more MLSN clubs have GA, that will make GA even better. ECNL's insistence on emphasizing high school play will eventually be seen as a negative.

I also see the Juco stuff being a great thing. It would make Juco soccer much better and help families save some money.
 
I don't think it's that simple. There are absolutely some GA teams/clubs that would do very well in ECNL (mid table or higher). ECNL needs to drop their bottom teams/clubs and bring those good GA clubs into the fold. ECNL on the girl's side has the top teams, but the tables have little parity to them.

That all aside it seems pretty straight forward to me at the moment.

Girls - ECNL or top 3 in GA. For ECNL avoid bottom 3-4. If on a solid ECRL team, try to get onto one of the aforementioned teams.
Boys - MLS Next or top 3 ECNL. For MLS Next avoid bottom 1-2. Anything outside of that, it will be a grind due to the inherent nature of how hard it is for boys to make it to the collegiate level (future roster size limits and abundance of foreign players).

This is the plan for the more serious player aiming to play in college. It's all about exposure. Most showcases for most players are a waste of time and money as most of the scouts are going to watch the top teams play. Just go to any of the top matches and see how many scouts there are. It's right there for you to see. Generally speaking the top teams are matched with other top teams.

I do think the MLSN + GA partnership will play out well. MLSN clubs have better coaching and generally have a better sense of style of play and a cohesive methodology. If more MLSN clubs have GA, that will make GA even better. ECNL's insistence on emphasizing high school play will eventually be seen as a negative.

I also see the Juco stuff being a great thing. It would make Juco soccer much better and help families save some money.
The problem with building a business based on exclusion (ECNL) is that you will always be creating a group of competitors that will create their own leagues.

You think that if ECNL girls could just be the exclusive provider of high level soccer that everything will sort itself out. It won't, over time non ECNL clubs will get better and some ECNL clubs will get worse. In the end you'll be in the same place that you started.

The problem (if you want to call it that) is NWSL is completely hands off with youth soccer. Contrast this with MLS which gets players as young as 13 under contract with pro clubs. Once NWSL chooses to get involved with youth everything will change.

From what I can see GA + MLS are positioning themselves to be the bridge NWSL can use to get involved with youth.
 
MLS, MLS Next and NWSL do not care about girls youth soccer. Don't hold your breath thinking that they will improve the landscape for girls.
They don’t but the individual non academy clubs do which is why they’ve been pushing it. It’s a revenue stream for them. Laufa before it went under went all in on developing a girls program that ultimately was a pretty spectacular failure. The girls program was cited as a factor in the Bulls getting mls next (considering the achievements of some other clubs on the boys side were more solid and it didn’t add anything new to the geographical landscape). To finance the scholarships for the top players on the boys teams, the clubs need paying customers. To attract paying customers including to the b and c league you need a top flight they can aspire to. Marketing.
 
I dunno - MLSN not allowing High School soccer is a big factor in ECNL’s favor.
Honestly that is mostly for player safety. Don't know if you watch much High School soccer but you see a lot of athletes and some of them are soccer players. Tons of highly skilled girls get taken unintentionally by big strong opposing players that simply aren't skilled and come in way too hard. As I recall when US Soccer ran the DA (development academy) program the players weren't allowed to play school soccer either as they number of games, quality of the coaching and fields would not have met standards.
 
Honestly that is mostly for player safety. Don't know if you watch much High School soccer but you see a lot of athletes and some of them are soccer players. Tons of highly skilled girls get taken unintentionally by big strong opposing players that simply aren't skilled and come in way too hard. As I recall when US Soccer ran the DA (development academy) program the players weren't allowed to play school soccer either as they number of games, quality of the coaching and fields would not have met standards.
That would be more believable if there were no exceptions.
 
That would be more believable if there were no exceptions.
Many of the exceptions are for private school soccer. What's happening is private schools want to win at soccer so they offer the best players they can find (MLS Next) free tuition if they play for their High school soccer team.

The top players go to MLS Leadership and say look I can get free tuition at this expensive private school but I need to play on their HS team. If the player is good enough MLS will provide a waiver.

As you can see it's not always rich parents buying waivers so their kid can play MLSN and do HS soccer. Although I'm sure some rich parents are buying waivers.

Personally, as long as MLSN or whatever league that didn't allow playing HS soccer provided more meaningful practices and games during the HS season I'd rather be playing club. If they didn't I'd want to play HS soccer.
 
Many of the exceptions are for private school soccer. What's happening is private schools want to win at soccer so they offer the best players they can find (MLS Next) free tuition if they play for their High school soccer team.

The top players go to MLS Leadership and say look I can get free tuition at this expensive private school but I need to play on their HS team. If the player is good enough MLS will provide a waiver.

As you can see it's not always rich parents buying waivers so their kid can play MLSN and do HS soccer. Although I'm sure some rich parents are buying waivers.

Personally, as long as MLSN or whatever league that didn't allow playing HS soccer provided more meaningful practices and games during the HS season I'd rather be playing club. If they didn't I'd want to play HS soccer.
That's exactly what I am referring to. If high school soccer is so dangerous, why permit any waivers at all?

As for "need" -- it often looks like the "need" is the soccer coach saying to the school admins things like "I need this player so (we can win; we will not be embarrassed playing public schools; I will keep my job -- pick one)".
 
Many of the exceptions are for private school soccer. What's happening is private schools want to win at soccer so they offer the best players they can find (MLS Next) free tuition if they play for their High school soccer team.

The top players go to MLS Leadership and say look I can get free tuition at this expensive private school but I need to play on their HS team. If the player is good enough MLS will provide a waiver.

As you can see it's not always rich parents buying waivers so their kid can play MLSN and do HS soccer. Although I'm sure some rich parents are buying waivers.

Personally, as long as MLSN or whatever league that didn't allow playing HS soccer provided more meaningful practices and games during the HS season I'd rather be playing club. If they didn't I'd want to play HS soccer.
I don't have any data but I doubt there are more than a score of players in soccer in socal getting totally complete rides. The complete rides are typically reserved for football players (and interestingly not the QB except at the very top ranked schools....QB is a wealthy player's position because at the second tier schools they have to shell at scholarship money for good receivers....since there are few football games to look at players it's important for them to get looks to have receivers capable of executing the complicated play and make them look good). The typical route to a free ride is the parents of players have to band together and agree to cover the tuition (either out of their own pocket or through donations to the school for boosters), usually made to look at need based. The vast majority of the the sports scholarships are need based awards with some form of genuine need (since private school tuitions have become outrageous)...it's just the sports kids get them while the nonsports kids may have to do without. My guess is the most outrageous really is the receivers since there are stories/rumors floating out there about cars being given out, housing, and even jobs for the very top players and families.
 
They don’t but the individual non academy clubs do which is why they’ve been pushing it. It’s a revenue stream for them. Laufa before it went under went all in on developing a girls program that ultimately was a pretty spectacular failure. The girls program was cited as a factor in the Bulls getting mls next (considering the achievements of some other clubs on the boys side were more solid and it didn’t add anything new to the geographical landscape). To finance the scholarships for the top players on the boys teams, the clubs need paying customers. To attract paying customers including to the b and c league you need a top flight they can aspire to. Marketing.
So to sum it up, MLS Next clubs are interested in GA and creating girls teams so that the girls can pay for their MLS Next boys teams? 🤣 Yeah, you can see where this is going
 
So to sum it up, MLS Next clubs are interested in GA and creating girls teams so that the girls can pay for their MLS Next boys teams? 🤣 Yeah, you can see where this is going
Um.. a bunch of the MLS teams are affiliated with NWSL teams. In Phoenix its RSL/Royals same as the pro teams and youth teams boys and girls. Why wouldn't they want to do the same with their academies and youth leagues? They have the infrastructure and if they can develop boys for MLS why not girls for NWSL? They only thing they lack right now is the league and it appears GA may be the one they go to. It may be a ways out but this would logically be how it starts.
 
I also disagree with the assessment that MLS owners are tired of paying MLSN and not seeing benefit. Seems like it is going pretty well to the point where outside investors are coming in for a piece of the pie. Seems like the path to the pros for youth soccer is getting better and better.

 
The indirect conflict between Major League Soccer (MLS Mext) and the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) has appeared to intensify in recent weeks.

MLS NEXT announces strategic alliance with Girls Academy. Clubs in the Girls Academy that aren’t participating in MLS Next have been approached about joining the league, and vice versa. Specifically, ECNL clubs with GA have been asked to jump over to MLS Next.

MLS Next has also begun expanding into markets that weren’t particularly important to them a few years ago. This strategic move aims to either increase membership, solidify age group divisions in certain markets, or target ECNL clubs. However, MLS owners are frustrated with the tens of millions of dollars invested in the league to keep it afloat, resulting in minimal returns.

On the other hand, the Girls Academy has been financially struggling, desperately trying to gain ground on the ECNL but making little progress. In response, the ECNL is expanding its Regional League brand, which now boasts double the membership compared to the ECNL route and has swiftly absorbed all the top GA clubs.

Perhaps the 3FOUR3 guys were right all along. The ones in charge do not care.

US Soccer’s Youth Soccer Model: More Sanctioning Leagues = More Money

BOYS: - MLS X2 EA EA2 ECNL ECNLRL USYSNL E64 NPL NAL RAL AYSO USSSA
GIRLS: - ECNL ECNLRL GA DPL USYSNL E64 NPL NAL RAL AYSO USSSA
I'm sure I left some out.

Soccer is evolving, with athletes now able to play two years in junior college without affecting NCAA eligibility. NIL is poised to impact college soccer (due to football), if the overwhelming amount of international students on college rosters don’t do it first. Other countries are catching up to our MNT and WNT as they focus on developing their own homegrown talent. Our kids play EA FC, while others worldwide engage in pickup and street soccer. If nothing changes before the next World Cup, we’ll have missed a great chance to grow soccer in this country. Then again, by then this conversation will have changed many times again.


Just trying to spark conversation during the holiday break.
Appreciate the conversation starter.

But this convo hasn't changed in any substantial or fundamental way since the early 90's. The surface details, the names of the leaders and the acronyms change, but the story remains the same: The US struggles (at least on the men's side historically, and increasingly now on the women's side) to turn the vast population of youth soccer players in our country into any tangible or significant talent advantage for professional or international competition, thus confounding observers, fans, and leadership in professional, youth, and US soccer, who then come up with variations of the same old plan to solve the problem.

My $.02 is that none of these ideas floated recently will solve the problem because of the 2 basic counter-intended drives that are trying to be fulfilled in these models. Drive #1 is to develop a better talent pool out of our massive youth soccer population. Drive #2 is to make money. These drives are totally at odds. They aren't at all compatible, because developing a better or deeper or more talented pool which will comprise .001% out of a youth population measuring in the millions is simply a resource-sucking, money-losing proposition through and through. There's no two ways about it. If you want to make money, that is a terrible game to play. SO, because we live in a world where that drive to make money ultimately determines everything that follows, THAT becomes the senior decision making factor, which then modifies, undercuts, undermines, destroys, or eliminates all the decisions that are ostensibly being made to fulfill Drive #1. These things are mutually exclusive. You can't make money AND dig for gold. It's why statistically almost none of the gold rush miners ever made it rich, but the state of California absolutely boomed in business surrounding the gold rush. Let someone else dig for the gold, buy it and re-sell it and sell goods to the people digging for gold, but if you really want to make money, for god's sake don't go panning in the Sacramento River for it.

Until US Soccer gets an angel investor (or a socialist government program like China or the USSR) who doesn't care how much money it loses looking for and developing top talent, there won't be any change in this story. As mentioned here by other posters, there is a need to expand the top leagues to keep membership high (thus income flowing) but it is obvious that doing so automatically waters down the talent pool, expanding the overal size to the point that finding any gold in it is akin to finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.

The only other thing that could potentially bypass this fundamental conflict of competing interests would be if the US were a truly soccer-crazed nation like Brazil or Argentina where the volume of interest was so massive that pay-to-play models couldn't choke all the talent out the enormous free options available the way that club soccer has done to AYSO.

That's not likely to happen in our lifetimes.
 
Um.. a bunch of the MLS teams are affiliated with NWSL teams. In Phoenix its RSL/Royals same as the pro teams and youth teams boys and girls. Why wouldn't they want to do the same with their academies and youth leagues? They have the infrastructure and if they can develop boys for MLS why not girls for NWSL? They only thing they lack right now is the league and it appears GA may be the one they go to. It may be a ways out but this would logically be how it starts.
This would be the perfect time to do it, with the total chaos in the college recruiting landscape.
 
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